Congress

Florida Republicans make peace with proposed new House map

Published

4 months ago

April 28, 2026

Some House Republicans spent weeks warning against a drastic redraw of Florida’s congressional map.

Now that it’s out — with Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting as many as four Democratic seats for a GOP takeover — they’re mostly keeping any criticism to themselves.

“I think they did a pretty good job,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who said he was one of the Florida Republicans whose district changed “quite a bit.”

“But I think they could touch it up a little bit, too,” he added.

Rep. Scott Franklin said he is set to represent his third constituency in four terms. He still lives within the confines of the 18th district, he said, though it is much smaller in area.

“Mine gets significantly less red than it was,” Franklin said. “But it’s still a conservative performing seat.”

DeSantis’ map still has to be approved by the Florida legislature, and it’s almost certain to face challenges in court. But many of the states’ 20 Republicans are already making peace with new districts that will be at least slightly more competitive.

Many warned that redrawing the existing GOP-favored map to pick up more than one or two Democratic seats could dangerously dilute the Republican vote. And at least one, Jacksonville-area Rep. John Rutherford, said targeting four “could be a bit much.”

Down the Atlantic coast, the reviews were more positive. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s Miami-area district remains largely untouched under the new maps, while her neighbor Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart could see his safe Republican seat only slightly diluted.

“Not bad, right? I’m used to those lines, so I’m happy,” Salazar said. “And I was one of the people that could have been highly damaged.”

She declined to comment on whether she expects the new map to net the four seats the GOP is craving: “God knows what’s going to happen.”

Several of the Florida Democrats who are now in danger expressed more concern. They now face running in unfriendly districts or switching districts and possibly running against a current colleague.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a South Florida Democrat, said he plans on running again and that he believes DeSantis’ effort will backfire by creating more tossup districts. Rep. Darren Soto called the map a violation of state and federal law but said he plans to run in his current Orlando-area district nonetheless.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a veteran Democrat representing a district south of Fort Lauderdale called the new map “a completely unconstitutional partisan gerrymander” and said she was waiting to review detailed data on her redrawn district.

“But the main thing is that this is illegal, and we’re going to sue,” she said.

Congress

Bobby Scott defends his track record amid fight to keep committee post

Published

1 hour ago

September 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Bobby Scott is defending his track record leading Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee in a new letter as he faces an internal challenge for the top job.

In a Dear Colleague letter dated Wednesday, the 79-year-old Virginian said he is running to keep the top spot on the committee, guaranteeing a showdown with fellow Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, a 53-year-old former teacher.

Scott has led the panel’s Democrats since 2015, including four years as chair during his party’s time in the majority from 2019 to 2023. He said in the latter that he looks forward to again holding the gavel of the Education and Labor Committee, as it is traditionally named under Democratic majorities.

“In this moment, we need a leader with a proven record of confronting and thwarting a dangerous President, a leader who will conduct rigorous oversight without fear or favor,” Scott said in the letter. “We also need a leader who will advance legislation grounded in evidence and data, restore and expand programs people need not only to survive but to thrive, and ensure we have a government that is truly accountable to the people. My track record speaks for itself.”

He made reference to one critique of his leadership — that he is a relatively low-profile presence inside the Democratic caucus: “While I have no qualms about sharing the spotlight with my colleagues, I want to be clear that my colleagues should not confuse my humility with an inability to deliver results.”

Blue Light News first reported Hayes’ interest in challenging Scott last week. She said in an interview that there needs to be a “push from the caucus” to counter President Donald Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Education Department.

“We are going to lift our heads up, and the Department of Education is going to be gone,” Hayes said. “I think that as a caucus and as a country, that should be a part of our priorities and a part of our agenda because it is incredibly important.”

Congress

Sanders to host AI briefing for senators

Published

3 hours ago

September 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will host a private briefing for senators next week with top artificial intelligence researchers, according to a letter to colleagues obtained by Blue Light News.

The meeting, slated for 4 p.m. on Sept. 16, comes as concerns grow on both sides of the aisle about safety warnings from top AI labs and researchers about the technology’s growing capabilities.

“Congress needs SERIOUS discussions about this issue,” Sanders wrote. “That is why I will be convening a private briefing with some of the leading experts in the world to discuss this recent incident and the extraordinary dangers that AI poses for humanity.”

Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the “godfather of AI,” is expected to brief the lawmakers alongside MIT professor and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute Max Tegmark and Ajeya Cotra, an independent investigator who helped probe helped probe OpenAI agents’ recent autonomous attack on the tech platform Hugging Face.

Sanders has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI, calling last week for a pause in AI development until a vetting regime can be stood up and a complete ban on superintelligence, a type of AI that may exceed humans’ cognitive capabilities.

Axios first reported details of the briefing.

Congress

Cruz says guardrails needed after dire AI warning

Published

4 hours ago

September 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Ted Cruz said bipartisan legislation is needed to protect the world from the “catastrophic risks” of artificial intelligence.

The Texas Republican’s Wednesday comments on ABC’s “The View” come as lawmakers in both parties call for more urgent attention to AI safety regulations after a researcher who quit Anthropic on Tuesday said tech giants are “gambling with our lives.”

“I read that whole tweet thread that that developer put out. It was highly concerning,” Cruz said in the interview.

He added, “It reminded me, last year I had Elon Musk on my podcast … and one of the questions I asked him, I said, ‘OK, what are the odds that AI destroys humanity?’ And he looked at me and said, ‘10-20%,’ and I’m like, ‘holy crap.’”

As the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Cruz holds significant influence over the fate of AI legislation.

Cruz worked with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) last year to pass the bipartisan Take it Down Act, which criminalized nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes and revenge porn created by AI. Cruz called for more legislation on Wednesday to guard against the “catastrophic risks” of artificial intelligence.

Those risks, which he said include biological and nuclear threats, should require government supervision and approval before they can be implemented. Cruz said he is currently working with Klobuchar and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to begin to address those dangers through bipartisan legislation.

“This is scary stuff, but we’re also not going to be able to stick our head in the sand and pretend technology isn’t happening. So we’ve got to put some guardrails on it,” he said.

Cruz said the likelihood of such legislation becoming law was “not clear.”

“Amy and John are negotiating right now. It is possible to move bipartisan legislation … but it ain’t easy.”

Despite his concerns about the risks of AI, he said the U.S. needs to lead the world in the technology’s development.

“One of the real challenges is [that] China is going full speed ahead, and whatever we do here, China is not going to stop,” Cruz said. “If there are going to be killer robots, I would rather they be American killer robots, rather than Chinese killer robots.”

In a social media post highlighting his remarks on the show, Cruz added: “If China leads the world in AI, the whole world is in trouble.”